Once sentenced, defendants lack effective recourse to post-conviction relief, even in the face of new exonerating evidence. Finally, the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997 offers even fewer safeguards than the ordinary criminal justice system and has the effect of fast-tracking convictions. Each of these failings constitutes a human rights violation in itself; taken together, they reveal an unreliable system that is fundamentally incapable of administering the ultimate and irreversible penalty of death. As the cases examined in this report illustrate, the systemic problems described above fall most heavily on Pakistan's most vulnerable members—the poor, juveniles, and persons with mental illness and development and intellectual disabilities. This report, written by the Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic at Yale Law School (Lowenstein Clinic) in partnership with Justice Project Pakistan (JPP), documents the many ways in which Pakistan's application of the death penalty is in breach of its obligations under international law. In analyzing Pakistan's use of the death penalty, the authors focused on “crucial cases”11 that exemplify the numerous international law violations and that illustrate the particularly damaging impact of these violations on certain vulnerable populations: juveniles, the mentally ill, and persons with physical disabilities. Relying on public records12 for a dozen of JPP's clients sentenced to death, the report tracks the many junctures at which violations occur, from charging to sentencing to execution. Several of the individuals selected have been executed since research for this report began. The systemic violations illustrated in this report compel the conclusion that Pakistan's continuing practice of capital punishment violates international law. The irreversible nature of execution mandates the immediate reinstatement of the moratorium on all executions. Yet a moratorium alone will not suffice. Today, Pakistan continues to sentence to death persons who are juveniles, mentally ill, or very likely innocent. What procedural safeguards exist in theory are largely ignored on the ground. Given the multi-level failings of its criminal justice system, Pakistan should suspend indefinitely all capital sentencing and launch investigations into those cases marked by allegations of juvenility, mental illness, the use of torture and other abuses of authority, and evidence of innocence. AVERAGE NUMBER OF EXECUTIONS PER WEEK IN PAKISTAN SINCE DECEMBER 2014 6 NUMBER OF EXECUTIONS IN PAKISTAN FROM DECEMBER 2014 TO SEPTEMBER 2016 NUMBER OF PRISONERS ON DEATH ROW IN PAKISTAN 418 8261 A “MOST SERIOUS CRIME”: PAKISTAN'S UNLAWFUL USE OF THE DEATH PENALTY 3